关于澳大利亚保险法若干问题的建议信

Advice

An insurance contract refers to a legal relation between an insurer and an insured by which the insured agrees to pay the insured an amount of money while the insured agrees to cover certain risks or losses for the insured in return. Insurance is helpful to protect the insured from suffering losses and to avoid potential risks. In order to enter into an insurance contract between the parties, it is very important for the parties thereto to be honest and tell the truth. The Insurance Contracts Act 1984 imposes on the parties (especially on the insured) to an insurance contract the duty of the utmost good faith and the duty of disclosure.

Before an insurance contract is entered into, the insured owes a duty of disclosure of all material facts towards the insurer. However, correspondingly, the insurer is also obligated to ask relevant questions to decide whether accept the risks or not; or the insurer may be deemed as waiving compliance with the duty of disclosure. When you quote for insurance, you will be requested to answer some questions. Before you answer these questions you need to know and understand some legal concepts in the questions and policy and you legal obligations and duty of disclosure.

1.Explanations for relevant legal concepts in the questions and policy.

There are various kinds of insurances with different functions and covers. As for the “house and contents” insurance, it is an insurance covering both your home and contents. In order to analyze main legal concepts clearly, here NRMA insurance company is chosen for an example. NRMA is a old insurance company which has covered Australians for 80 years. The company provides various kinds of insurance from property insurances to life insurances and their integration. Among them, home insurance includes three categories: you can choose Building and Contents Insurance, Buildings Insurance or Contents Insurance. Building and Contents Insurance covers both your home and contents, while the last 2 types of insurances cover only one of them. You should choose a type of insurance which suits you.

The Product Disclosure Statement for home insurance states that the insurance policy for Building and Contents Insurance is a contract between you and the company. The insurance policy consists of two instruments: (1) Certificate of Insurance you currently have; (2) The Product Disclosure Statement and its applicable supplements. The Product Disclosure Statement states clearly what you are covered for, what the company insures, what cover you may add to your insurance, how to make a claim, how much is the premium, provides a fully detailed guideline to help you to know and understand how the company operates, what and how you should do to get involved in a home and contents insurance1. It is a very useful document. Since the Product Disclosure Statement has recorded the significant clauses of the insurance contract, you should read it carefully to get knowledge about the clauses, your rights and obligations. In the last of the statement it gives definitions for words which have special meaning in the contents, which should also draw your enough attention.

When you decide to quote the insurance, the company will provide you a form with a few questions, which require you to fill it completely and correctly. These questions will be classified

1The NRMA Insurance, “ Home Insurance Buildings & Contents: the Product Disclosure Statement and Policy Booklet”